The Glow of the Embers
by Double-Elle
Summary: A series of one-shots focused on the relationship of Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia. / Chapter 5: Late Night - A sleepy midnight conversation leads to some surprising news
1. Kumot at Unan

Hi there! This is where I'm going to publish all the one-shots that I initially put up on my Tumblr blog.

**A/N:** This chapter's story and title was inspired by the APO Hiking Society song of the same name.

* * *

It was that familiar warmth of his that woke her up.

Lucy's eyes slowly opened to the sight of her dark apartment, faintly illuminated by the moonlight from the window. The sounds of his snoring reverberated in her ears as she scanned the arm in front of her that was currently embracing her body.

'Oh, great,' she thought, feeling very annoyed by her current predicament. 'The day hasn't even started yet, and already he's broken into my room.'

Being too groggy to actually kick him out of the bed, she decided to gather up all her energy on the next best thing. "Natsu," her voice croaked out, with her free hand trying to shake his arm away from her, "Natsu, wake up."

No reply came from his side, except for his loud snoring. Lucy let out a deep sigh. "Natsu," she said with more force in her tone, "get off of my bed. Right now."

She finally heard some mumbling coming from behind her. "C'mon, Lucy," she heard his muffled voice say. "Just for tonight..."

"Yeah, yeah," Lucy turned to her other side to face him. " 'Just for tonight.' I'm sure you're gonna pull that one out the next time you'll break into my room again. Now get off," she said as she tried to push him away with her arms.

It was no use, however. For all the effort she put in her pushing, Natsu barely budged from his position. "You look a little cold over there," he peered from his barely open eyes. "I could help warm you up, if you like."

"Really?" Lucy asked sarcastically. "You really think that would change my mind?" If she was being completely honest right now, the offer was starting to become more and more tempting as she got drowsier by the second. She, however, wasn't going to put up with her friend's shenanigans without a fight.  
"Please, Lucy," Natsu mumbled. "Just go back to sleep."

With her eyes barely trying to stay open anymore and her fatigue finally kicking in, Lucy gave a sigh of defeat. "Fine," she told Natsu as she moved a little closer to him, "but you're leaving the moment you wake up, got it?"

Once again, her words came up with no response from him, but Lucy didn't care at this point anymore. She curled up closer to Natsu's body, with his arm still wrapped around.

And as she slowly drifted back to sleep, she could have sworn she saw a faint smile form on his slumbering face.


	2. Countdown

A/N: This was an idea that just came over me one night and it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it down. The format for this story is so very different to what I'm used to, and I was a bit nervous finishing it, but I had a lot of fun doing it. And hey, it's rather fitting for New Year's, is it not?

* * *

**TEN**

You've been stuck in this hospital room since ten in the morning. Admittedly, you should have been aware that something was amiss earlier: your lower back had been aching a lot recently, but it had never forced you to wake up earlier than you usually did. And with your husband still out on a job that took place way up on the northern part of the country, you had no choice but to let it keep you up until it subsided. You had been feeling a lot more chipper when you came to visit the guild, but your stomach kept cramping every once in a while. A few of your friends had taken note of your discomfort, but Bisca was the one to ask you how often they had been coming. The moment you realized just how frequently they had been happening, your guildmates took no time in helping you go to the hospital.

**NINE**

Nine hours have passed since then, and you're getting really sick of being cooped up in here. Loke was kind enough to help bring a bag of clothes for you as soon as he heard the news, so you didn't have to worry about that. Levy stayed for a while to keep you company before going back to the guild early in the afternoon, but not before leaving you some novels to pass the time. Unfortunately for you, you've managed somehow to read through four 500-page books within the span of three hours (and that was even without your Gale-Force Glasses). Now all you have left to do in between your contractions is to either stare at the plain walls in the room, or to mentally prepare yourself for later. And as much as you want to do the latter, a sense of dread and worry would come along everytime you try to do it. And why wouldn't you be worried? You're not even up to full term.

**EIGHT**

You're technically still eight months along. Thirty-five weeks, to be exact. Your doctor, as well as the nurses, has tried to assure you that there's absolutely nothing to worry about; that the baby's internal organs have been fully developed already, and that the last five weeks of pregnancy were just so the baby could develop more fat to keep herself warm. You really wish you had that much faith in their words; after all, you did read up on all those pregnancy books that you bought the past couple of months. But right now, all the knowledge and terms that you've learned so far just seemed to have vanished from your head, and suddenly, you don't have a clue about what they're trying to say anymore.

**SEVEN**

It's seven in the evening, and your husband finally arrives at your room. He staggers in from the door, with an extremely worried look on his pale face. He apologizes for not getting here earlier, telling you about how he tried running to you right away the moment he heard the news from Jet, but his teammates managed to knock him out before he managed to escape from the forest they were in (and you can tell from the extremely annoyed tone in his voice that he's not exaggerating with this claim). He then tells more harrowing stories of being tied up as they searched for the nearest station, the bad luck they had when their ride suddenly broke down mid-destination, and his annoyance when those so-called "bastards" accidentally left him back in the train in his motion-sick state when they finally arrived back in Magnolia. Despite how horrible it actually sounds, you start to laugh at his stories, if only because it helped lighten up your mood from this morning. He spends the rest of the time with you feeding you ice chips and holding your hand when another contraction kicks in.

**SIX**

It's six minutes to eight, when one of the nurses comes back in for one of their routine check-ups. She tries to engage you with some small talk as she looks at your vital signs. Just as soon as she inspects just how far along you are, she tells you you're already ten centimeters dilated. You're ready to go to the delivery room now.

**FIVE**

And all of a sudden, you just can't help but think about those five weeks that you will now miss out on. All sorts of questions begin to flood into your mind as you get wheeled into the delivery room. What if those nurses were wrong about what they told you? What if missing those five weeks turned out to be extremely crucial to the baby? Will the baby really be fine when she's born? You're scared. Absolutely terrified about everything that could possibly go wrong.

**FOUR**

Has it been been, what, four hours since you entered the delivery room? Frankly, you just want it all to be over and done with. Small beads of sweat are falling from your forehead, and incredibly sharp pain keeps coursing through your body with each push, that squeezing your husband's hand throughout the whole process seems to be the only source of comfort in all of this (the fact that he tries so hard not to show his own pain for your sake only serves to make you more annoyed at him). The doctor finally tells you that you just need to push one more time for the baby to be finally out. So with a loud grunt, you give out a huge push as you start to count inside your head. One...two...three...four...

And just right then, you are greeted by the sound of a crying baby.

**THREE**

The doctors take no time to check up on your newborn daughter. They cut off her umbilical cord, clean her up, check on her health, and record some data on her before finally putting a tag bracelet on her arm. You slump back into the bed in exhaustion, with your husband kissing you on the forehead, thanking you for just how amazing you were in bringing your baby here into this world. You give yourself a moment to take in everything that just happened, because you just can't believe it, that your family of three just grew bigger now (and of course, you wouldn't forget to include Happy with you guys). A nurse offers your husband the chance to hold your baby girl, all bundled up in a soft yellow blanket. And as soon as he does, it then turns into one of those rare moments where he lets you see him cry openly; this time, from tears of joy.

**TWO**

He then lets you have the chance to hold your baby. A strong surge of feelings come rushing in as you get a closer look on her: you see the wispy pink hair on her head that she clearly got from her father, her tired face, with two brown eyes trying to peer at your own, two little hands with five fingers on each one, and two strong legs that you know very well can kick really hard.

She starts to cry again as she fusses around in your arms. She was safe now. She was healthy. She was perfect. Just absolutely perfect.

With tears streaming down your eyes, you talk to your baby as you try to calm her down. "_Hey there. I guess you couldn't wait to meet us, right?_"

**ONE**

It's one minute to midnight, but you don't really pay mind to that.

Because your little one is finally here, and that's all that matters to you now.


	3. Chitchat

A/N: A few weeks ago, I saw a prompt for a foreign exchange student AU, but I changed it into an International Undergraduates AU since I thought there'd be more opportunities to write with it here, and also because it would be a lot easier for me to write from experience. I'm not sure if I'm leaving this as a oneshot or continuing it later on, but we'll just see in the future!

* * *

Lucy slumped down on her seat as the girl beside her got called by the teachers stationed at the mess of tables in front of her. It was registration time for the international students in her new university, and she was currently beating herself up in her head for not waking earlier than she did. Maybe then, she thought, that she wouldn't have panicked and forgotten to bring her passport with her other documents. Maybe then she wouldn't have had to travel back to her apartment and return to the sight a long queue of students in front of her, but no! Right now, she was stuck with stub number 129, while the teachers were still with…

**"Number 46, please come to the front!"**

To say that Lucy's morning wasn't going how she wanted to was an total understatement.

As soon as she started rechecking all the documents in her bag for the twentieth time that day, a young man with light brown skin and spiky pink hair suddenly appeared in her sight. "Hey, is this seat taken yet?" the boy asked her, pointing to the empty chair left to hers.

Lucy looked at the chair and back at him. "Oh, that? You can go ahead," she answered with a smile, "no one's sitting there."

"Nice, thanks!" he grinned at her as he finally sat down and put his backpack on the floor. "I'm Natsu, nice to meet ya!"

"No problem! My name is Lucy, it's nice to meet you as well!"

Natsu looked at the blonde girl with a surprised expression on his face. "Luigi?" he asked her, slightly confused, "that's a weird name for a girl, but okay!"

"What?!" Lucy said, taken aback by his comment. "No, you heard me wrong! My name is Lucy! Lucy!"

"Haha, sorry, sorry! Didn't hear you well back there," he laughed, tugging his scarf closer to his neck. "Wow, it really is cold in here now! You don't feel it?

"It is supposed to be the end of summer, but the temperature wouldn't really drop that low by now," she said, resting her cheek on he hand. "Now that I think about it, with the way you're dressed up, you don't seem to be used to cold weather. Where are you from?"

"You wanna guess?" he asked, his voice slightly raising with childish excitement.

"I would have said Japan, but I don't think that's the case now, is it?"

"Nope, I am half-Japanese though! Wanna take another guess?" he asked her again, "I'll give you a hint: it's also in Asia!"

"Let's see…" Lucy mumbled as she inspected her new friend, "Your skin looks rather tanned, so maybe it's in Southeast Asia? Are you Malaysian? Indonesian?"

"Almost there! You're getting close!" he said, grinning in anticipation of what she might answer next.

And all of a sudden, a thought had clicked in her head. "Wait a sec, are you half-Filipino?"

"Correct!" he shouted enthusiastically, automatically gaining the attention of everyone around them. And in the moment, all the buzz and business in the room had come to a standstill.

"Heh, sorry!" he waved sheepishly to the teachers staring at them, earning a small giggle from Lucy in response. "So what about you," he asked her, his voice a bit more quieter this time as the room slowly started buzzing with energy once again, "where'd you come from?"

"Oh, me?" I'm just from the US," Lucy shrugged. "It's nothing really that special compared to your place."

"Eh? Come on, you guys get to have snow!"

"Snow isn't really all that impressive after a while, especially if you're not used to the cold," she told him, amused by his previous response. "And besides, you have summer weather all year long! That sounds just like a dream!"

"Nah, it's either too hot or too rainy over there! You probably wouldn't like it there that much."

"But it'd still be nice to come visit there at once, right?"

"Yeah, I guess…"

The two of them stayed quiet after that, unsure of what they wanted to add to continue their conversation. As Lucy started to fiddle with the main zipper on her bag, Natsu decided to break the ice once again.

"So…your major, what are you planning to take here?"

"I'll be studying Creative Writing," Lucy answered, grateful at the fact that they've gone back to talking, "and you?"

"I'm gonna take Fire Sciences here!" he told her, pride clearly showing on his beaming face.

Lucy could only look at him with confusion.

"What?"

"I told you, I'm taking up Fire Sciences!"

"…you're not making this up, right? Is that actually a real thing?"

"Yeah, it is!"

"No way."

"Yes way!"

"But like, I mean, what do you even study about?"

"Oh, it's really awesome, ya know? You get to learn everything there is about fire, and then they'll teach you stuff like how to stop it from spreading it out through the buildings or how to investigate arson cases! Pretty cool, huh?"

Lucy's eyes slowly widened in amazement. "Wow, it really does sound impressive! Does this mean you're studying all this so that you could be a fireman?"

"Yeah!" Natsu said as he started tugging his scarf closer to him, his face slowly starting to form a small blush. I mean, there's not that many colleges back home with this course, and I got this scholarship deal and-"

**"Attention students,"** one of the teachers from the tables announced from their intercom, **"it's almost noontime, and we will be on a break soon! Those who have numbers 100 and above can go ahead and eat lunch outside!"**

Many of the students filing out of the lecture room started to grumble loudly as they went out the door, saying things like "Oh, come on!," "Are you freaking kidding me?!" and "I knew I should've come here earlier."

Well, my number's 129, so I guess that means I have to go outside then." Lucy rose up from her seat with her bag on her hand. "But I don't really know where to find food in this place yet…"

"My number's 146, maybe I can come with you?" Natsu offered her as he started to follow suit. "I could show you some cheap places I found around here!"

Lucy gave him a soft smile at him. "I'd love that."


	4. Overload

**A/N: So, this is a sort-of continuation/sequel from Countdown two chapters ago, this time focusing on Natsu with a "five senses" theme. This is my very, very late submission for NaLu Week 2015, and also a birthday gift for my special friend, Soprana!**

* * *

**Sound**

You're freaking out.

This room is so freaking _noisy_. There's so much going on at the same time, you don't even know where to start!

Your wife is there, crushing the bones on what was once your right hand, and the way she's grunting every now and then actually _scares_ the life out of you. It's terrifying, it doesn't even sound human sometimes. There are doctors and nurses talking to you two, saying something that was supposed to be encouraging, but it looks like she doesn't want to hear any little part of it. You can hear your own heartbeat, getting louder and louder as you guys go on, and you wanna scream so much right now but you catch the glaring look on your wife's eye, and then you remember what you heard about some of the guys in the guild who started complaining to their wives when they had their kids (it wasn't pretty). So you just shut up, and hope she stops glaring at you over there.

You then hear the doctor say that the baby is gonna be out with just one more push. You then brace for the impact of your wife's crushing vice grip, listening to her grunting louder than ever with that one last push.

And then, you hear another cry. A much louder, shriller one, at that.

It's her.

It's really _her_.

She's finally here.

**Smell**

As your wife finally slumps on her bed in exhaustion (and her grip from your likely broken hand), your mouth start spilling out every single word of appreciation and thankfulness you can think of towards her, just for how strong and amazing she was back then. You can't help but be awed at her. It's only after a few kisses to her forehead that the nurse finally comes with your baby daughter, all cleaned up in a yellow blanket, ready to be held by her parents for the first time. Baby daughter, huh? You're gonna have to get used to hearing that now.

You get the chance to hold her first, and when you do, the first thing you notice is her scent. There is some part of it that you can tell is from Lucy, seeing how she lived inside her the whole time, but you also catch something else. You put two and two together in your head, and you realize that this is your scent on her as well. This revelation shakes your mind: this baby, this little person that the two of you made out of love, has a part of you and her in that tiny body that no one can ever take away from her.

**Taste**

And with that, your mouth start to feel dry, as if there's cotton suddenly stuffed inside your mouth. Your lips start to tremble, and tears form in the corners of your eyes. There's no stopping it, you just let it out right there and then, but these aren't tears of sadness. Oh no, it's the complete opposite. They're ones of absolute joy and wonder and excitement over this little one, and the bright future she has ahead of her. And so, with that proud, dopey grin on your face, you hand her over to your wife, and you watch her shed her own tears of happiness as she begins to feed her for the first time.

**Touch**

It's been a few hours since your daughter was born. Over that time, your wife has been getting a well-deserved rest after a few visits from your friends. It took a lot of convincing, but you guys somehow managed to get the staff there let Happy in the room (or maybe it was sneak him in, you're not exactly sure anymore). Right now, he's hovering over your shoulder, looking in awe at the baby that's resting on your chest.

"Wow, her head looks so weird, Natsu!" he tells you as he touches the top of her head with his paw.

"Hey, careful! They said her head's still really soft!" you tell him as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake up the two girls sleeping in the room. "Besides, they also said it'll be normal later on." But even then, you know you'd still love her even if she has a weird-shaped head. Man, you're really getting into your dad role now.

The baby starts to fuss a little, and you try to shift her position to make her comfortable. The other thing that the doctor told you before she went off was that while your baby is fine and healthy, she may have trouble keeping herself warm for a while since she was born earlier than expected. So you're doing what any good dad would do right now, keep her warm with your body heat while cuddling her. Pretty awesome, huh?

"Hey, check this out, Natsu!" Happy says to you as he softly strokes his paw on her cheek. Your baby starts to move her head towards him, and it looks she's about to suck on his paw. That's not a good sign.

"Come on, Happy's paw tastes really gross, you really don't wanna do that," you say to her while you try to keep her mouth away from him. Happy was not so happy that you said that, considering the rather indignant "Hey!" he gave you after that. Besides, you don't know what he's been touching while he was gone, and you really don't want to ask right now.

**Sight **

"What's going on over there?" a very tired voice asks you from over the hospital bed. You look over to your side, and you see your wife watching you guys in dazed confusion. "What was that about Happy's paw?"

"Nah, it was just a joke," you tell her as you try to save both of your hides. Something tells you that it's better off not telling what happened, seeing how scary Lucy can really be many times before.

"Well, if you say so…are you holding the baby right now?"

"Yeah, just keeping her warm while you were out. Wanna hold her?"

She nods at you with this excited smile on her, and you can't help but smile back at her when you hand over the baby to her. You see the loving gaze she has on her as she looks at your sleeping daughter,and you can't help but want this moment to last forever. "She looks so much like you, you know? I could tell from the moment I saw her pink hair."

"Come on, she clearly gets it from you," you tell her because, obviously, she does. "Her eyes are just as brown as yours."

"Okay, but they look just as sharp as yours," she pointed out. "And she also gets her loud voice from you as well."

"Hey, she kicks just as hard as you, remember?" you tell her, remembering all the Lucy Kicks you've had in the past, and all the times you've felt the baby kick before she was born. "She clearly gets that from _you_."

You hear Lucy laugh a little after that, so that's a good sign. "Okay, okay. She clearly gets a lot from both of us, you happy now?"

You and Happy laugh back in return, only for him to stop after a while. "Hey guys, I just realized, we don't have a name for her, do we?"

You and your wife look back at each other in shock. Crap, you forgot to give her a name then! You turn to your wife right then, and say "What do we call her now?"

You see Lucy give a pensive look as she looks at your baby once again. From the way she's been biting her lip a bit, it seems as though she's having a hard time as well. It takes what feels like forever until she finally says…

"Luna. Her name is Luna now."

This catches you off-guard, you did not expect her to go for _that_ name at all. "I thought you didn't want to use-"

"I know, I've probably said that to you that many times before," she tells you (and you clearly remember every single time she complained about how unoriginal it would be), "but…look at her. She has so much from you and me. It just fits her right, any other name would just feel…wrong."

You then look at your daughter now, and you try the name out on her in your head.

Luna.

_Luna_.

**Luna.**

"It's perfect!" you suddenly burst out. "It really does fits her well! You hear that, Luna? You have a name now!"

And in your joyous excitement, you forget that Luna was sleeping soundly in her mother's arms until she starts crying. Very loudly. That's right, babies don't like sudden loud noises, remember?

"Sorry," you tell your wife sheepishly as she tries to calm her down.

"No problem," she smiles back at you, "I'll tell the nurse once she comes back.

Happy starts to snicker at your direction. "You two really _looove_ her, don't you?"

You don't fight back. It's absolutely true.

And nothing is ever gonna change that.


	5. Late Night

A/N: This entry was made around more than a year ago, but in light of Overload one chapter before, I thought it would be best chronologically-wise to put this one after that. In addition to that, it is also a connected story to the second chapter in my other entry All Said and Done.

* * *

"Did you have fun at school today?"

"Yes, Papa."

"Did you learn anything new?"

"Yes, Papa."

"Did that boy call you mean names again?"

"No, Papa."

"Good," Natsu said under his breath as he carried his daughter to her bedroom. The job he took earlier that day for catching a group of bandits turned out to be harder than expected, and he nearly missed the train stop back to Magnolia, no thanks to Happy. It was already late into the night by the time he got home, welcomed by the sight of his wife and their very sleepy daughter waiting for him in the living room. "She said she wouldn t sleep until you came back," Lucy told him.

Luna held onto her father tightly, her head slumped on his shoulder. Papa? she asked sleepily. Can you come back home earlier tomorrow? We didn t get to play today

As they finally gotten inside her bedroom, Natsu began to tuck her in her bed. Yeah, he smiled. I ll finish up my job really quick, and I ll even pick you up from school after that.

"Promise?"

"I promise." He kissed his daughter on the forehead. "Goodnight, Luna."

"G night, Papa " she answered softly as she finally began to fall sleep.

As Natsu quietly went out of the bedroom, he saw Lucy waiting for him outside the door, softly smiling at him.

"Welcome back, Natsu." She kissed him on the cheek. "How did the job go today?"

"Ugh, it was such a pain in the ass!" he said with an irritated tone. "Those bandits were a lot tougher than I thought they d be! Some of them even knew some Healing Magic, so it was really annoying trying to take them all down at once!." He sighed, then looked at their daughter sleeping soundly in her bed. "At least I got her into bed tonight."

Lucy made a small smile on her face. No wonder our daughter s such a daddy s girl.

Natsu continued to watch Luna fondly from the door. Kinda makes ya wish we had another one, huh? he said wistfully.

Lucy started to laugh nervously.

"Yeah, about that "


End file.
